Abstract
I WISH to correct an omission of mine in a notice of the work of the United States schooner Blake (NATURE, vol. xviii. p. 198). Capt. Sigsbee's modification of Thomson's wire-sounding machine was used for the deep-sea soundings. The steel wire was No. 20 American gauge, and the time required to reel in with it was always one minute per 100 fathoms. The steel wire rope used for dredging, which was made expressly at the suggestion of Prof. A. Agassiz, was the one mentioned in the notice as being of galvanised steel, with a hemp core (not coil, as printed), and which in the notice appears as if it were the same wire rope that was employed for sounding. The sentence will read correctly if the words “used for dredging” be inserted after the words “the wire rope” in the paragraph. The importance of this suggestion of Prof. Agassiz will be best understood when the immense saving of space gained—one coil of 3,000 fathoms of this wire rope occupying on the reel only a space of 5 feet long, 5 feet high, and 4 wide—and the immense saving in time of lowering and hoisting the dredge, are taken into account.
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W., E. DEEP-SEA DREDGINGS OFF THE GULF OF MEXICO . Nature 18, 357 (1878). https://doi.org/10.1038/018357b0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/018357b0
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